Investigation of the relationship between learning styles and scientific process skills of 60-72 months children

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between learning styles and scientific process skills of 60-72 months old children. The research was organized according to the quantitative research method. It was designed in accordance with the relational screening model. The participants of the study consisted of 216 children from 5-6 age group attending kindergartens in the city center of Bolu in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data of the study was obtained by using Personal Information Form, "Learning Styles Scale for 5-6 Years Old Children" developed by Uyanık-Balat, Bilgin and Özdemir in 2012 and "Preschool Scientific Process Skills Scale" developed by Büyüktaşkapu in 2010. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 22 program. Primarily, parametric test conditions were examined while preparing the data for analysis. The distribution of the data was examined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests and found that the distribution was not normal. As a result of the analyzes, it was determined that the variables of age (inference skill), gender (data recording and inference skills), mother education level (observation, classification and measurement skills), father education level (classification and measurement skills), family income level (observation, inference and measurement skills), school type (observation, classification and measurement skills) and school attendance (all skills) variables had a significant difference on the scientific process skills of the children participating in the research. In addition to these results, it was determined that learning styles differ according to gender, the visual style was affected by mother's education level, the visual and auditory style was affected by father's education level. Moreover, it was concluded that there were positive, and meaningful relationships between scientific process skills and learning styles. Keywords: Scientific process skills, learning styles, 5-6 years old children, preschool education